Two department stores and the GAA will be in the High Court this morning in a row over shirts.
Arnotts, the Dublin board of the GAA, and sportswear manufacturers O'Neills have served notice on Penneys store to stop it selling football jerseys in the same colour and style as the official jerseys sold in Arnotts.
O'Neills manufacture the official jerseys, endorsed by the Dublin GAA board, which retail at €50. Penneys is selling jerseys, which are similar but without the O'Neills signature across the front, at €15. Both shirts are made of 100 per cent polyester. The O'Neills shirt is made in Ireland. The Penneys shirt gives no indication where it is made.
The majority of customers interviewed at the two stores yesterday favoured Penneys being allowed to continue selling the less expensive jersey. Ms Deirdre Fitzpatrick from Finglas, Dublin, was in Penneys on Dublin's O'Connell Street, buying a €15 jersey for a birthday present. The boy she was buying it for "won't worry about the difference between this and the other".
"It all comes down to money, the other shop trying to stop Penneys selling this one. What difference should it make as long as the kids like them?"Another woman, Ms Barbara McCann from Dublin, said she was "sick of paying big money for labels".
"That's all you're paying for at the end of the day. The quality of the shirt is just the exact same. The big names are just exploiting the kids and their parents trying to make them buy their designer label brands."
However, in Arnotts, life-long Dublin fan Mr Joseph O'Connor (90), from Rialto, said it was worth paying €35 more for the GAA-endorsed jersey. "I'd pay anything for the thing I want and for quality. I have two of these jerseys at home and I'd never buy the Penneys merchandise."